Earlier, I attended the The Future Leaders Panel at YearlyKos, which featured the following brave '06 congressional challengers going for another round next year: Charlie Brown (CA-04), Darcy Burner (WA-08), Larry Grant (ID-01), Eric Massa (NY-29), Scott Kleeb (NE-03), Dan Seals (IL-10), and Gary Trauner (WY-AL.)

As many electoral successes as we had in red and purple districts last year, these panelists represented some of the more heartbreaking close calls. In fact there was a running joke that it was the losers' panel, but as one of the panelists said, "We are redefining the word loser. I am a proud loser." Charlie Brown put it well when he turned the joke on its head and said proudly, "The reason we're winners is that most of us got more votes than any Democrat ever had before in our districts." But the most poignant reason the loser moniker doesn't fit is that these challengers, despite falling short in votes in their districts, undeniably contributed to our winning the majority last year. They forced the Republicans to spend precious time and money in these districts, which they'd taken for granted just a cycle before, and that was time and money that couldn't be spent defending other districts. In other words, sitting on that stage was the 50-state strategy incarnate.

Another interesting thread that ran through the discussion was just how much has changed in 2 years. Scott Kleeb said he "literally knocked on the DCCC's door" last year and told them he was running in NE-03. "And they said, that's nice." Now they're all getting offers of support whereas last year they couldn't get past the receptionist. Sure, it's a function of their having proved themselves viable last year, but in addition, there is a greater openness to grassrots and netroots candidates on the part of the DC establishment. All of the challengers on that stage gave credit to the netroots for not only providing the support when no one else would, but also for challenging the DCCC to pay attention to these races. And they urged us to continue to do so.

More from the convention later...

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I was in our capital city this weekend and found out that a gay friend of mine had an affair with Adrian Smith (Republican candidate NE-03) who is running on a save-traditional-marriage, anti-gay-rights, anti-civil-union platform.

This is not hearsay to me because I know this person and they have no reason to lie (he's totally in the closet and would never go public). So, I did a little more digging and apparently Smith's fellow politicians in Lincoln (he's been a state rep for 8 years) have known/suspected this for a long time. I just talked to a friend who worked for Bob Kerry and she confirmed, saying the Republicans have been working overtime to keep this quiet during this campaign.

I know - it's no longer news when a hyper-Christian Conservative is found to be gay so let me tell you the REALLY BIG NEWS: the Kleeb campaign has known for a while and consciously chose not to take action! OMG! Could it be we have a chance to send a truly decent man to Washington?

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By MrMainstream

Poll:  The Most Important Race in the Country Is... (with Poll)

Which race is the most important this cylce? I get my say first.  Yu get your say in a poll later..

To find out my answer, youll have to follow me...

Cross Posted from DailyKos here:  http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/31 /111457/10

Also at MrMainstream Here: MrMainstream

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This just showed up in my mailbox:

A new poll conducted by national polling firm Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates September 20-21 shows that the 3rd District congressional race is up for grabs as we enter the last six weeks of the campaign.

When asked who they would vote for "if the election were held today," 41 percent of definite voters said they would vote for Adrian Smith and 37 percent said they would vote for Scott Kleeb. The margin of error for the entire sample is ±4.87%.

Considering the margin of error and the high percentage of undecided voters - this race is most definitely in play.

There are likely a lot of people who don't believe Democrats can compete in Nebraska. Well, I think we are about to prove that wrong.

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(cross-posted at Deny My Freedom and Daily Kos)

Today, former Virginia governor Mark Warner criticized the Democratic Party. At least that's the impression one would get from the title of the AP article. However, what Warner had to say was not to be critical of our party in the present, but instead supporting the idea of the DNC's 50-State Strategy.

"I got pretty frustrated after 2004," said the former Virginia governor. "We are making a mistake if we put up candidates that are only competitive in 16 states and then we roll the dice and hope we win Ohio or Florida."

In an interview with The Associated Press, Warner insisted he wasn't being critical of 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry, whom he called "a very strong candidate." But Warner said Democrats must stop conceding entire regions of the country.

"We do our party and the country a disservice if we're not competitive in the South and the balance of the Midwest," Warner said. "I'm disappointed in campaigns that write off the South and leave behind wide swaths of our country."

Indeed, the article goes on to mention that DNC chair Howard Dean has been doing exactly that - beginning to fund Democrats in deep red states that haven't seen money in years. One would expect the results of such an effort to take years - even decades - to show results. However, in the upcoming elections, we may begin to see electoral results sooner than expected. Although some races are a combination of having a completely incompetent opponent - as is the case in the ID-01 race, where certifiable nutjob Bill Sali is opposing Democrat Larry Grant. However, we also have good candidates running as well. In Nebraska's 3rd Congressional District - an open seat - Democrat Scott Kleeb is facing off against Republican Adrian Smith. Despite this being a heavily Republican district, Kleeb may very well pick off a seat that we should theoretically have no business winning.

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